Ch. 7 Language Variation

1
Ch. 7 Language Variation

• Introduction to English Linguistics
• Jungtae Kim, Ph.D.
• 2008.05.25

2
Language variation

• Definition
• Regional varieties of the same language
• Social, ethnic and gender-related varieties of
  the same language,
• Stylistic varieties of the same language
• See the seven examples in p. 134

3
Language Universals, Languages, Dialects, and
Idiolects

• Language universals
• See Figure 7.1 Domains of language study, by
  groups of speakers
• Mutually intelligible

4
Regional Variation

• Regional varieties of a language result from a
  number of political, geographical, and cultural
  factors.
• Linguistic heritage
• Migration routes
• Political and ecclesiastical divisions
• See Dialect atlases in Figure 7.2 and 7.3, 7.4,
  7.5
• You need to know the Figures indicating
  regional variation in the same language!
• Isogloss
• Upper Midwest darning needles for dragonfly
  
• Lower Midwest snake feeder, crawl in
  Nebraska and Southern Iowa

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Regional Lexical Variation

• Lexical variation vocabulary variation
• Northern and Southern varieties
• See the e.gs., in p. 141
• Northern U.S. Vs. Southern U.S.
• U.S. Vs. Canada
• See the e.g., in p. 142 U.S. English vs. British
  English

6
Regional Phonological Variation

• Linking r
• Eastern New England and NY city
• a vowel-vowel sequence between words is
  linked with an r
• e.g, That idea is crazy. (idear)
• Consonant epenthesis a consonant is inserted
  to break up a series of two vowels
• Vowel epenthesis athlete
• Vowel neutralization before nasals
• Sourthern idalects - / /, / / ? I before a
  nasal consonant
• neutralization or merger pen vs. pin

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• Vocalization
• in the deep South, substitutes for
  post-vocalic liquid /l/, /r/
• there / / ? / /
• Voicing assimilation
• greasy ? s in the North, z in the South
• In the Southern Dialect, s assimilates the
  voicing of the adjacent vowels to yield z
• Monophthongization of /aI/
• Monophthong /a, e, i, o, u,/, Dipthong
  /aw, ay, ey, ow,../
• tire ? tar, fire? far, five ? fav,
  guide ? gad

8

• Canadian raising
• /aI/, /aw/ /a/ ? /?/
• fight /faIt/ ? /f ? It/, out /out/ ? / ? ut/
• Stress
• British vs. American English pronunciations
• See the e.gs., in p. 145

9
Social Variation

• Sociolinguistics concerned with the
  interrelationship between the language of a group
  and its social characteristics socioeconomic
  status and ethnicity
• Working class New Yorkers delete post-vocalic
  r forty-four
• Several trends during the late 1950s and early
  960s
• Social variables age and education
• Listeners making social judgments based on
  characteristics of a speakers dialect standard
  vs. nonstandard dialects
• e.g., socially marked forms aint
• 3. African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
• e.g., tap faucet,
• Cant nobody tell him what to do.
  Nobody can tell him what to do
• these

10

• A Creole is a language that develops from a
  pidgin, a linguistic system used when speakers of
  different languages come into contact through
  trade or colonization.
• Pidgin
• The difference between a linguistic judgment and
  a sociological one himself, hisself, heself

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Nonstandard Phonological Variation

• Substitution of d instead of
• this, that, these, those working-class
  sections of NY city
• / /, / / are very close in their places of
  articulation
• Consonant cluster reduction
• CCR deletes a consonant from a series of two
  or more word-final consonants
• e.g., iced tea /aIst Ti/ ? /aIs ti/

12
Nonstandard Morphological variation

• Reflexive Pronouns
• e.g., hisself, theirselves
• Omission of Final s on Verbs
• e.g., He walk home every day.
• Other Nonstandard Verb Patterns
• I seed him yesterday.
• I seen him yesterday.
• Ive saw him three times this week.
• be to one single form
• I is, You is, We is, They is

13
Nonstandard Syntactic Variation

• Inversion in wh-Interrogatives
• See the e.g., in p. 157
• What is it? Vs. What it is?
• Double Negatives
• e.g., I dont have no money. ? I dont have
  any money.
• From 18th century prescriptive grammar
• Nonstandard Treatments of to be
• be-deletion
• Hes looking for work. ? He looking for work.
• Her hair is messed up ? Her hair messed up.

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• e.g., in p. 158
• AAVE It is his. ? It his.
• Do they be sick?
• Do they be at work?
• Habitual be distributive be

15
Language and Gender

• Gender the social, psychological roles,
  attitudes, and traits associated with biological
  sex
• Gender as a Social Variable
• Upper middle class vs. lower-working class
• He dont
• Lower-working class women
• Standard form women men in NY city

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Gender Patterns within Standard English

• Womens language mens language
• tag questions,
• hedges(sort of, you know, I guess),
• question intonation on declarative structures,
  
• indirect speech acts,
• euphemisms (e.g., power room for toilet),
• empty adjectives and intensifiers (that is
  SUCH an ADORABLE puppy),
• specialized vocabularies in domains such as
  color terms (magenta, periwinkle shades of
  purple, blue)
• See Figure 7.6 Substitution of aint for other
  verb forms during casual conversation

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Stylistic Variation

• Systematic variations within the language of any
  one speaker, depending upon the occasion and the
  participants in the interchange.
• Different styles
• Registers on a job interview
• Linguistic style is a matter of what is
  appropriate

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Stylistic Lexical Variation

• Varying from one situation to another is
  vocabulary
• Thank you for your consideration. Vs. Thank
  you for your time.
• However, therefore, thus but, so
• Informal register
• let the cat out of the bag, kick the bucket,
  make the grade, give me a break
• canine dog, thermal heat, dental tooth,
  lexical word

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Stylistic Phonological Variation

• Neutralization rules obliterate the distinction
  between segments
• Deletion rules
• Suppressed full pronunciation
• Latter /t/, ladder /d/, affect, effect
• Deletion of unstressed syllables
• remember, hypercorrect pronunciations
  elementary, mathematics

20
Stylistic Morphological Variation

• Contraction
• Im, youre, hell, Ill,
• Clipped form
• Psych psychology, econ economics, comp
  lit comparative literature, sports fanatic

21
Stylistic Syntactic Variation

• Changes in syntax in register
• e.g, In which department will I be working?
• For whom do you work? __ Whom do you
  work for? ? who do you work for?
• Omission in interrogatives
• Do you want another drink? ? You want another
  drink? ? What another drink?
• Appropriateness
• Who did you speak to?
• To whom did you speak?